Thanksgiving is pie’s biggest week. A Durham icon serves the Triangle’s best.
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- Foster’s Market sells roughly 1,500 pies in November and 500 before Thanksgiving.
- Foster’s key lime pie ranks as a year‑round bestseller and holiday tradition.
- Foster’s sells whole pies for $30 and slices for $4; shop has anchored Durham since 1990.
When you imagine biting into a cloud, as surely we all do, what you’re really thinking it might be like is the silky pillow of fluff that is the whipped cream atop a Foster’s Market key lime pie.
It seems like a miracle — this whipped cream stands up more than an inch tall, with enough structure to support small wedges of cut limes, instead of floating off into the air somewhere.
Another surprise, in the great pantheon of pies served at Foster’s Market, is this key lime pie is the most popular year-round, brightening the sunniest summer days, cutting through the winter darkness with a bit of tropical tartness.
Foster’s Market voted best pie in the Triangle
Opened in 1990, Foster’s Market is a Durham institution, a lived-in front porch of picnic tables and bites for every craving. It is also the Triangle’s favorite pie shop, prevailing in The News & Observer’s foodie poll, where readers voted on the most popular pies in the region.
“Once you’ve set foot into Foster’s, you know that we’re about pie,” said Foster’s catering manager Emily Gallione-Knapp. “ I feel like pie is community for us.”
Without question, now is the pie high season at Foster’s. In the month of November, Gallione-Knapp expects to sell 1,500 pies — 500 in just the Tuesday and Wednesday before Thanksgiving. One single order is 150 pies large.
Owner Sara Foster wrote the book on pie. Literally, the book is called “Pie,” in the Savor the South collection of cookbooks, chronicling 57 different pie recipes. At Foster’s, you might see someone treating themselves to a slice with a bowl of soup, or picking up a pie to take to a dinner party. Some people divide the world into cake and pie, but Gallione-Knapp insists its more about the moment than the point of view.
“(Pie is) more accessible than a cake,” she said. “And also our cakes are enormous and will easily feed 20 people. A pie is kind of a more intimate thing, and it’s here to cut.”
Foster’s Market key lime pie
Gallione-Knapp grew up in Durham and visiting Foster’s. When she first started working at Foster’s more than a decade ago, she thought surely it was a mistake to see key lime among the Thanksgiving offerings.
“I saw that the key lime pie was on the Thanksgiving menu, and I thought that was just a mistake that someone had overlooked on our end,” she said. “In fact, it was not a mistake. Our key lime pie is so popular that people want it as part of their Thanksgiving tradition and Christmas tradition.”
While key lime may be the most popular year-round, the Thanksgiving trinity of pecan, apple and pumpkin will be the top sellers this week at Foster’s. It may be too great of an indulgence for some, but Gallione-Knapp says too many people are sleeping on the chocolate-pecan pie.
“It’s interesting, people are very passionately pro or anti,” she said about the addition of chocolate chips to pecan pie.
Foster’s Market has been in Durham for 35 years and is open every day except Thanksgiving and Christmas. Known for sandwiches, soups, salads and desserts, Foster’s has a gravitational pull that seems to draw everyone in Durham.
“Whether you are new to Durham or whether you have lived here your whole life, you have probably experienced Foster’s at one point or another,” Gallione-Knapp said. “Foster’s is Durham. It’s just a mainstay.
“There are so many full-circle moments. We have customers who’ve had their family portraits taken in Foster’s, and it’s still here. That’s the thing with Durham changing so much, to have a place that not just the name has carried on but the location. You have people who have worked here for over a decade.”
At Foster’s, whole pies are $30, and slices are $4.
This story was originally published November 21, 2025 at 4:36 PM.
